UK Improvisation (part 2 of 4)
Original position in magazine: pages 56-57
Contents: Preamble, Derek Bailey’s drum n bass record, Evan Parker with George Lewis, Evan Parker and Lawrence Casserley
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So, what do you think?
Some CDs mentioned above on the Emanem Label, as was the original Domestic and Public Pieces (only the label was called Quark); for an interview with label owner Martin Davidson, look ahead. My personal preference is for recording made in the 1970s, which seemed a great time for improv music…but it would be a mistake to ignore recent developments. Bailey and Parker are survivors, their art remains important. Their talent hasn’t dissipated, nor do they try and trade on past glories. Quite the contrary…
Derek Bailey
Guitar drums ‘n’ bass
JAPAN AVANT AVAN 060 CD (1996)
This is a record of Bailey playing super-fast amplified guitar solos over a ‘backing track’ of genuine drum n bass sounds provided specially for the occasion by DJ Ninj, a Junglist from Birmingham…a simple and effective combination and a bloody excellent racket. Bailey finds rhythms that are barely perceivable, asserts his unique personality without a shred of arrogance, and in effect is defying the unyielding backing track to keep time with him. This record induces a painful hyper-awareness of the passing of every single second, simply because Bailey (the fourth dimensional traveller) is so intent on exploring the possibilities of each musical collision as it emerges and dies.
To me its origins appeared to have sprung out of a severe loneliness, the awfulness of being an improvisor and needing to practice or play alone. For a long time Bailey made practice tapes (of himself or other pieces of music, I think) to play along with at home. Sometimes sections of these tapes would be arbitrarily wiped and drop out at unexpected moments, forcing the player to keep alert at all times. One night he started listening to Jungle pirate stations, responding as much to the relentless music as to the chattering of the DJs - sending out a message to their crew, advertising gigs or ordering a takeaway pizza on the air. ‘The music’s constant, but with interruptions’, observes Bailey. From this I sense a reaching out to some succour from the airwaves and somehow finding it in the Jungle stations. What appealed most to Bailey was not exclusively the music, but the liveliness and chaos of the station. A tape found its way into the hands of John Zorn, who prioritised it on the massive waiting list of Avant projects. An abortive attempt was made to record it in Birmingham with Mick Harris, who not only couldn’t provide a chair for Bailey to sit down while playing, he seemed unable to mix a live instrument with the backing tape which Ninj had prepared. (See The Crackling Ether section for more Harris debacles). Finally it was recorded in Brooklyn by Bill Laswell. I am well aware this CD was given a warm reception in one area of the music press, as though it somehow ‘brought together’ two apparently incompatible types of music, and vindicated both. Rather, one should say it vindicated the ‘good taste’ of the journalists who are so proud of their catholic tastes in music.
There is a kind of post-modern mayhem which been afoot in music since the mid 1980s, at least. The ‘putting together’ aspect is what Eugene Chadbourne practically based his career on, melding Country and Western, jazz and rockabilly with improvised music. Another manifestation of that sickness was Henry Kaiser, who offered to teach anyone to play ‘in the Derek Bailey style’ via a practice video. I have no idea what this means. Bailey is more than a style. It seems we simply pick things up like rags from the street, nothing is lived, learned or felt through the heart.
There was a live set promoting Guitar Drums N Bass at The Garage. This was excellent and much better because it used a loud backing tape of Jungle music belted out through a portable ghetto-blaster, complete with droupouts and silent sections (as I say, deliberately kept in for the unpredictability element, so Bailey stays on his toes). It gave thus the impression of total spontaneity in a way the CD didn’t quite manage. When this event was still in the planning stages, Stefan Jaworzyn observed ‘I find this idea most appealing, and it strikes me as closer to Bailey’s aesthetics than producing a CD with specially composed jungle’. Bailey has won his spurs ten times over for consummate musicianship, and this project - along with other collaborations with Japanese players Keiji Haino, The Ruins and Altered States - are probably chiefly to keep his own interest going, rather than trying to ‘prove’ anything about improv, compatability with other players, music, his own abilities or anything else.
Evan Parker’s disappointing set with George Lewis @ The ICA was nobody’s fault, just that the self-generating computer programme kept going down. The idea was that a special random-generated series of instructions would feed themselves through modems into Lewis’ electronic gear, playing pre-sets and sounds in such a way that it was almost thinking for itself. Parker was required to think on his feet to keep up with this digital racing demon, except when it crashed and sounded like about 20 stuck CDs all playing at once. In fact it sounded more interesting at this point than how it was ’supposed’ to behave! Richard Sanderson thought it was funny that a machine did the same thing an improvisor does when it runs out of ideas…it leans on the keyboards with its elbows. Parker, probably more than a little miffed after the second such crash, fell back on familiar phrases, and sounded like a shell of his former self. On the other hand From Saxophone and Trombone is an Incus LP which pairs Lewis and Parker, and it’s an unbeatable classic. The sax - electronics pairing continues…
Evan Parker and Lawrence Casserley
Solar Wind
UNITED KINGDOM TOUCH TO.35 CD (1997)
Parker’s soprano sax processed by Casserley’s electronics on this CD, which is very sweet and easy on the ear…this may be a good thing if it entices an average chill-out thrill seeker to bend an ear, but what does it say about Evan Parker’s direction? This is almost like improv for the Portishead listener, who likes music to be little more than sounds which are sampled, looped, processed and distressed into pure, art-free entertainment. A shame if so, because Parker has always struck me as being about complete commitment to the processes of playing and practising, exploring the relationship between artist and instrument, and not simply about effecting nice sounds in the ether. My preference with Parker’s diverse work isn’t hard to guess…I recently came across one of the rare Beak Doctor recordings (Evan Parker at the Finger Palace) which is intensely harsh, a warbling vibro intenso meisterwerk of inexorable looped notes. It is actually physically difficult to listen to, demonstrating that room-clearing power Parker was somewhat amused to find he had. Still, that’s not to say every single Parker recording has to come armed in full attack mode - and if you’re not as captious as this listener you’re bound to be pleased by the aerial acrobatics on display here. There’s even a tribute track to the great Canadian avant-garde film-maker Michael Snow - ‘The Central Region’ named for one of his structuralist cinema masterworks. Interestingly, Michael Snow also made a film called New York Eye and Ear Control which has a Free Jazz soundtrack on the ESP label.
ED PINSENT